


Some People Called it Taking Shelter

by 7_Magpies



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Watcher Entertainment RPF
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Locked In, M/M, Making Out, Questioning Sexuality, Shane Madej Loves Ryan Bergara, tornado shelter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:20:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26077087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7_Magpies/pseuds/7_Magpies
Summary: While on location, a storm blows through and the boys have to take cover. While stuck underground, some things come up to the surface.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 19
Kudos: 157





	Some People Called it Taking Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I grew up in the south, so I am intimately acquainted with tornadoes. They're just a fact of life here. I'm not sure how this came to mind, but it did, so I hope you like it! There's no actual smut, I just tagged it M to be safe. 
> 
> Title comes from "Blown Away" by Carrie Underwood. It's still a jam, and I'm not taking any alternate opinions on this.

“Shane, what’s happening?” Ryan’s eyes were open wide in fear, and Shane could see how scared he was even in the darkness. 

Shane grabbed his flashlight and walked to the windows in the front of the (supposedly) haunted house of the week, looking outside. “Oh, shit. Ryan, we gotta get to the basement.’

“What’s that damn noise? What’s happening?”

“Tornado siren, get up. Grab your bag.” Shane was grateful that the house they were in had a storm cellar. “I thought you checked the weather!” 

“I did! It only said thunderstorms!” They had grabbed their belongings and were opening the front door. Once the door opened, the sirens were louder and the wind started to beat against them. “Don’t blame me for Mother Nature being a bitch!” Ryan said, practically screaming to be heard over the storm. 

Shane grabbed Ryan’s arm and pulled him towards the entrance to the storm cellar he had seen while they were touring the outside of the house. 

They got to the door and Shane swung it open, pushing Ryan through and following closely. “Help me latch it,” Shane called, working hard to pull the door shut against the wind. He held the door to as Ryan latched it, and they both collapsed on the floor once it was closed. 

“What the _hell_ , man?” Ryan asked, breathlessly. “What the… what was that?”

“That, my friend, was your first tornado,” Shane said with a half-smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “What did we expect travelling to Oklahoma in the summer, really?”

“Not that,” Ryan said frantically, pointing at the door they had just rushed through. His hair was a ruffled mess from the brutal wind they had just run through, and his hoodie was almost soaked from the rain.

“You’re _such_ a southern Californian,” Shane sighed, standing up and looking around the space. 

Shane couldn’t stand all the way up in the small room. It was rectangular, and so narrow that Shane could touch both walls when he stretched his arms out. There was a small toilet in the back corner, and an old mattress pad on the floor. “Lovely place we’ve got here,” Shane noted.

“Why are you not freaking out?” Ryan asked, still sitting next to the wall. “That was scary as _shit._ ”

“Midwesterner, y’know? Tornadoes aren’t that uncommon.” Shane pulled out his sleeping bag and lay it on top of the mattress pad and lay down on top of it. “If we’re in here too long my back is going to give out.”

Ryan just nodded, jerking slightly at each roll of thunder. “I’m so glad we don’t get tornadoes in LA.”

“Come on, earthquakes are so much scarier. All of the sudden the ground just _shakes_? I’d take getting blown into a tree any day.” 

“Agree to disagree.” Ryan stood shakily and moved to sit next to Shane on the mattress pad. “I hope TJ and the others are somewhere with a cellar, too.”

“Most hotels around here will have a tornado shelter, or at least there will be one nearby. Don’t worry about them. This should blow over pretty quickly.”

Ryan pulled out his phone and groaned. “No service. I can’t check the weather.”

“Well, nothing to do but wait.”

Shane tried to go back to sleep, but Ryan’s constant jumping at the thunder made it impossible. And, okay, maybe the constant wind beating against the door wasn’t conducive to sleep.

“So I guess sleeping is out of the question?” he asked, looking over at Ryan. His friend was closer to him than normal, thanks to how narrow the shelter was.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Shane sighed and sat up, positioning his sleeping bag against the wall so he could lean against it instead of the hard wall. “Wanna talk about something? Play a game?” He knew when Ryan got panicked that the best thing to do was to distract him.

Ryan hummed, thinking. “I dunno, we’re entirely too sober for Would You Rather,” he joked.

“What a frat boy answer,” Shane said laughing. “How do you play Would You Rather?”

Ryan had situated himself similarly to Shane, across the small space from him. Despite both men having their knees pulled up, their feet were brushing together. Neither made any move away from the contact, though. “I’ve always played while three sheets to the wind. That way you don’t remember any of it the next day. Wait a sec…” He reached over for the bags he had grabbed in his panic to get out of the house. “Jackpot!” He pulled out a couple of cans of crappy beer he had grabbed at a gas station. 

“No Bigfoot to share with, though,” Shane said laughing.

“Sure there is. Here ya go, ‘Squatch,” he said, handing Shane a can. “I’ve been meaning to bring back drinking at haunted houses. I think it made the Lizzie Borden house more bearable.”

Shane didn’t comment, opening the can. _May as well_ , he thought. 

“So… would you rather…” Ryan trailed off, trying to come up with a good question. He seemed to already be distracted enough from the storm outside. His face lit up after a moment of thinking. “Got it! Would you rather spend a week at the Sallie House or Pennhurst?”

“Sallie House,” Shane said without even thinking. “Pennhurst was _so_ gross.”

“But Sallie House was _so_ creepy,” Ryan countered. 

Shane rolled his eyes, sipping from the can. “Whatever. Would you rather… run into Mothman or Bigfoot in a dark alley?”

Ryan thought for a moment. “Probably Bigfoot. He seems pretty chill. Mothman, though, I don’t really know what his deal is.”

They continued for a little while. Ryan still jumped whenever the thunder cracked outside, but for the most part he seemed to be more relaxed while criticizing Shane’s insistence that being stuck on the Island of the Dolls for a night would be worse than being stuck on a crab infested island for a week. 

Shane had no idea how Ryan had fit so many cans in his backpack, but he apparently had put the whole twelve pack in it. “I thought we could share them with the crew tomorrow afternoon” he commented when Shane asked about it. “I think we deserve them, though.”

As he got buzzed, Ryan’s questions got more and more… adult in nature. “Would you rather fuck C. C. Tinsley or D. B. Cooper?” was one of these. 

“I dunno,” Shane said, chuckling a little at the question. “Cooper was a bit of an idiot, wasn’t he? I don’t think I could fuck a guy that wore a clip-on tie so unironically.”

Ryan laughed at this analysis. “Good point. At least Tinsley had a business, right?”

“Exactly. Why this interest in who I’d like to fuck, anyways?” Shane said it as a joke, but Ryan clammed up. 

“I mean… y’know, just as a question for the game.”

Shane raised an eyebrow at Ryan’s reaction. “Ry?”

“Well, I mean, I don’t think you’d ever actually fuck a guy, like, you’re straight, right?” He was rambling, and his face was reddening with embarrassment. Shane could tell even in the darkness of the shelter with a flashlight on over to the side.

“Not completely. I’m bi. Is that… is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course!” Ryan answered, too quickly. “I just… guess I was curious.”

“You were curious about my sexuality so you decided to ask a question about fucking different men to figure it out?” Shane asked with a crooked grin.

“... Well when you say it like that…”

Shane couldn’t help but laugh. “Dude, it’s okay. I don’t mind talking about it with you. I know you wouldn’t purposefully say anything offensive.”

Ryan nodded, taking another drink. “Right. Okay.” 

“So… what about you?”

“What about me?”

Shane shrugged, gesturing with the hand holding the can of beer. “You’re straight, right?”

Ryan didn’t answer, looking away.

“Oh. You’re not… you’re trying to figure it out?”

He shrugged a little, still not looking up at Shane. “I guess. I just… I’ve been wondering, y’know?”

This made sense to Shane. “Well, I mean, if you wanna ask me anything, you’ve kinda got me as a captive audience.”

“Like… what kind of questions?” 

“Come on, Ryan. I know you. You have questions about everything, especially stuff you’re trying to figure out for yourself. So ask away before I lose my nerve.”

“Right.” Ryan thought for a moment. “I guess I really wanna know… like… how did you know?”

Shane gave a low whistle. “Wow, straight for the big one, huh?”

“You know it,” Ryan said with a half smile. 

“I dunno, really. I guess I just… I kind of always knew, but I just ignored it for a while. When I moved out to LA… it got easier to acknowledge that part of myself. If that makes any sense?”

The younger man nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think so. But have you, like… uh…”

“Don’t clam up on me now,” Shane joked. 

“I’m just… have you ever done anything with a guy?”

“A couple times, but nothing too intense. Just some fooling around.”

Ryan hummed and took a large sip of his drink, draining the rest of it and reaching for a new can. 

The beer had been warm from being in Ryan’s backpack, and it was almost hot now. Shane didn’t really care, though. This was almost a surreal experience, sitting in a dark room alone with Ryan, sharing this part of himself with him. It was… not how he anticipated this investigation going, to say the least.

It was too close to a scenario he had imagined before. Too close to Ryan pouring his heart out to Shane about hidden feelings and asking if Shane felt the same way and - 

The familiar daydream was interrupted when Shane realized Ryan had been talking to him. “Hm? Sorry, got distracted.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it.

“What is it?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Before Shane could press, though, there was a horrendous crashing noise outside. Ryan almost jumped out of his skin, dropping his half-full can all over himself. “What the _fuck_ was that?!” 

Shane ran over to the door of the shelter and unlatched it, but it refused to open. He pressed against it as hard as he could, to no avail. “Oh, fuck,” he muttered.

“What’s going on?” Ryan asked, rushing over to where Shane was hunched pressing the door with his shoulder. “Let me try.”

Shane moved around him and Ryan tried to push the door open. It refused to budge. 

“Oh no,” Ryan moaned. “Oh no oh no oh no oh-”

“Hey!” Shane grabbed his shoulders and spun him so they were facing each other. Shane hadn’t realized how close their faces would be, though, given how he had to bend down in the short shelter. “Hey, calm down, Ryan. We’re gonna be okay. I promise.”

Ryan nodded, gulping for air as he panicked. 

“Come here.” Shane sat and pulled Ryan to sit next to him. “Breathe, okay? We’re going to be alright. They know where we are, and they’re going to come look for us. We’re just going to be stuck here for a little bit. They’ll be here soon after the storm blows past, though. Just a few hours, at most.”

Ryan seemed to be calming down again. “Okay. Okay. What could have blocked the door though?”

Shane thought for a moment. “Maybe a branch fell off of the tree and landed on the door. Whatever it is, they’ll find us soon. Just breathe.”

Shane was almost glad that Ryan was freaking out, in a weird way. By focusing on keeping his friend calm, he was able to keep his cool himself. He sat in the floor of the shelter, listening to the wind raging outside and Ryan’s sharp breathing as it evened out. 

“Better?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Thanks.”

“No problem. Can’t have you freaking out on me, can I?”

Ryan smiled a little bit. “I should really change, though. I poured beer all over myself, it’s gonna stink.”

Ryan stood and went to dig through his bag, and Shane turned to face the door in order to give him a bit of privacy. He sat there for a few minutes, wondering how long it would take people to find them, when he heard a loud _thump_ behind him and Ryan’s muffled curses. 

He spun around to check on his friend. “Ryan, you okay?” 

Ryan was standing at his full height ( _lucky little jerk_ Shane thought) but cradling his arm to his chest. “Gah - _fuck_ man.”

“What happened?” Shane moved over to look over the arm Ryan was cradling. 

“Forgot about how low the ceiling is, ended up hitting my arm against it pretty hard. _Shit._ ”

Shane noticed that Ryan was still shirtless but worked hard to ignore that. 

“Come here, you.” He sat down and Ryan sat beside him. “Hand me that flashlight.” 

Ryan obliged and Shane looked over his arm. “Don’t think you broke anything, but it’s probably gonna bruise,” he said after a moment. 

“Right. Thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem.” He moved back to where he had been sitting earlier, and Ryan sat back across from him. 

“Are you…?” Shane trailed off, gesturing to the shirt that Ryan had pulled out but abandoned efforts of pulling on. 

“It’s pretty warm in here, I was just gonna not. If that’s… like… okay?”

“Yeah, no, that’s fine.” Shane nodded, making an effort not to look at the expanse of tanned skin now on display. 

“Dude, you’re being weird.”

Shane felt his cheeks grow warm. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. We should probably try to sleep, right?”

“Yeah,” Shane agreed, and he placed his sleeping bag back on the mattress pad, laying down on top of it. Ryan was right, the rain outside and their body heat in the small space made it humid. The shelter was on its way to being uncomfortably warm. 

Ryan had set out his own sleeping bag next to Shane’s, and both were lying on top of their bags, not wanting to cover up. 

“There’s no way I’m getting any sleep,” Ryan murmured after a few moments of tossing around. 

“Me either,” Shane replied. It was too warm and too loud and Ryan was too close and too undressed. “Talk to me about something.”

“Like what?”

“I dunno. Anything. Tell me a story or read me something. We can take turns until we start to get tired.”

Ryan seemed to consider this idea. “Yeah. Okay. Let me think for a minute. I think I got one.” He started a story about going to Disney as a kid and one of the rides breaking down. A cast member had to get them out of the car and was trying to shepherd everyone out of the ride, but his family took pictures with all of the animatronics because they were “such good photo ops.”

Shane chuckled, listening to the story. He had always liked Ryan’s voice. It was smooth and, while not very low in pitch, still had a calming quality to it. 

When he finished, Shane told a story about him and his brother as kids. He was somewhat self conscious about his voice in comparison to Ryan’s, until after he finished.

“I like it when you tell stories,” Ryan said softly. 

“Except the Hot Daga?”

“Except the Hot Daga,” he repeated, laughing. 

“I like it when you talk, too,” Shane admitted. “You’ve got a nice voice.” He turned his head to see Ryan looking at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” he said, still looking at him with an unreadable expression.

Shane could read Ryan’s face. Could tell what he was feeling just by a glance. So not knowing exactly what was on his friend’s mind was strange. 

“Come on, you’re looking at me weird. What’s going on in your head?”

Ryan hummed and shifted his weight so he was on his side, looking at Shane, and one hand was lying between them on the mattress pad. “I dunno. Just thinking.”

“About?” Shane felt drawn to put his own hand over Ryan’s but he somehow managed to fight it down. 

“About who I like,” he said softly, still looking at Shane.

Shane felt his heart begin to race and he swallowed thickly. “And what decision are you coming to?”

“Not sure yet.”

Was it just Shane’s imagination or was Ryan moving closer? Maybe it was his eyes playing tricks on him in the dark. 

No, Ryan was _definitely_ inching closer to him in the tight space. Shane wasn’t able to move as he watched Ryan move so their faces were barely inches apart. 

“Ryan?” he finally managed to get out, looking at his friend’s dark eyes. 

“If you want me to stop let me know,” Ryan said, stilling.

Shane felt his heart thud loudy in his chest - surely Ryan could hear it? - but said nothing.

Then there were soft lips covering his own, Ryan’s warm body moved close to him. It only lasted a moment, but Shane thought his heart had stopped beating in his chest. Either that or it was beating so fast he couldn’t pick it up. He wasn’t sure which. 

Ryan pulled back so there were a couple of inches between them again, looking almost as nervous as Shane felt. Neither man said anything for a moment, just looked at each other. 

Shane slowly reached a hand up to Ryan’s chest and placed it there, feeling his warm skin beneath his fingers. “Ryan?” he said after a long moment.

“Yeah?”

He realized he had no idea what he was going to try and say. That he liked it? That seemed juvenile. That Ryan was beautiful? He already knew that, had to. That he’d wanted that for a long time? That seemed desperate, even in his own head. 

“Have you decided?” 

_Wait, was that slick? That might have been slick. Hot damn._

“I think I might have,” his friend replied, smiling widely. “If that’s okay with you?”

“Oh fuck yeah.” _Okay, decidedly less slick. Can’t win ‘em all._

Ryan barked a short laugh. “I’m glad. This would be an awkward next few hours if you weren’t okay with it.”

“As is, I suppose it could be a pretty nice next few hours?” That was definitely not slick, but he didn’t really care, not with Ryan’s chest brushing against his own and Ryan’s hand sliding through his hair and Ryan’s mouth covering his lips again and - _Ryan._

The shorter man was lying on top of Shane, straddling his waist and bracketing his face with his arms, and Shane knew that sight was going to be a recurring fantasy for the rest of his damn _life._

Ryan was kissing him again. His lips tasted like warm beer and that shouldn’t have been nice, but _damn._ Shane moved his own hands over Ryan’s back and chest and through his hair, wanting to feel all of the skin he had been unable to before now. He was warm and soft, and his hair was thick and silky, and his stubble was scratching against Shane’s cheeks and chin but he found he didn’t really mind. 

After a long moment, they parted for air, Ryan pressing his forehead to Shane’s. “For the record,” he said breathlessly, “I think I’m pretty definitely not totally straight.”

Shane laughed, also out of air. “I’d hope not.” Then another thought struck him and his face fell. “This… this isn’t just you experimenting, is it? Because I don’t think I can… I’ve wanted you -”

Ryan shushed him, placing a hand on Shane’s cheek. “It’s not. I promise. I wouldn’t do that to you.” 

The taller man nodded. “And you’re not drunk?”

Ryan actually laughed a little at that. “Dude, I only had a few cans over the span of a couple of hours. You should know my tolerance is a little better than that. Are _you_ drunk?”

“No.” Shane did have the presence of mind to appreciate their change of roles. Ryan looking down on _him_ , Ryan calming _him_ from a near freak-out. He smiled up at his friend before pulling Ryan down by his hips to kiss him again. 

They were both starting to sweat from the combination of humidity and heat and arousal, and while Shane would normally find it gross, the heat seemed to intensify the entire encounter. Every touch Ryan trailed across his body made the fire just under his skin burn brighter. Not to mention that Ryan’s muscles slick with sweat in the light of the flashlight was a sight Shane couldn’t think of words to describe. Not when they shifted under his bronze skin as Ryan was taking Shane’s shirt off, muttering something about “entirely too many clothes.”

Shane did take a moment to feel awkward about being shirtless in front of (or, rather, _under_ ) Ryan. His pasty skin and complete lack of muscle mass didn’t compare to the man above him. 

Ryan didn’t seem to mind, though, if the way he was kissing his way down Shane’s neck and across his chest was anything to go by. 

Shane heard himself panting for air as Ryan’s lips made their way down his torso, and he gripped Ryan’s hair, careful not to tug but still tight enough that he knew Ryan could feel it.

“Didn’t know you were into hair pulling,” Ryan quipped, looking up at Shane.

“I can be,” he replied with a wink that made Ryan laugh. “You know, for your first time doing anything with a guy, you’re a natural.”

“I like to think I’m a quick learner,” he replied, hands running up Shane’s legs. 

Shane hummed appreciatively, watching Ryan closely, committing every move he made to memory. “We really shouldn’t… you know - _fuck_.” He gasped out a few curses when Ryan’s hand covered the growing bulge in his pants. 

“Probably not, but I’d really like to,” Ryan said softly, moving back up to kiss Shane’s lips.

“Me too, but this is too new and it’s… what’s the damn word…” he writhed under Ryan’s touch, biting his lip. “ _Extenuating_ ” he cried jubilantly after a moment. “Extenuating circumstances.”

Ryan chuckled at Shane’s excitement over remembering the word. “I know you’re right. I just really wish you weren’t.”

Shane smirked. “Story of your life.”

“Shut up, Shane.” His voice was fond as he repeated his well-used line. “So… None of that. But I can keep kissing you, right?”

“I’d hope so.”

Ryan kissed him again, and Shane practically melted under him. It was hot in so many ways, and Ryan’s hands were exploring his chest. Shane couldn’t tell whose legs were whose the way they were wrapped around each other. “There’s no one I’d rather be trapped in a storm cellar with, you know?”

“Feeling’s mutual, big guy,” Ryan said, smiling down at him. 

\-----

The next morning, they woke up to noise outside of the storm shelter. Shane sat up and rubbed his eyes blearily. “What’s going on?”

The door opened to the cellar and TJ’s face appeared. “There you guys are! We were worried!”

“What time is it?” Ryan muttered, reaching for his cell phone.

“Eight o’clock. Come on, let’s get you two out of here. It’s hot as hell.”

Shane murmured his agreement and started to collect his bags. “When did the storm end?”

“A couple hours ago. We got out here as fast as we could - neither of you were answering your phones - but there were branches all over the road and it took forever for it all to get cleaned up enough for us to get back out here. Devon’s gonna be relieved, she was not looking forward to the paperwork if you both died on-location.”

Ryan scoffed, pulling his shirt on. “Love her, too.”

“To be fair,” Shane pointed out, “the paperwork _would_ be an absolute nightmare.”

“Shut up, Shane. Let’s get out in the fresh air.”

They finally had their shirts on and their things packed into their backpacks. “Never coming to Oklahoma during tornado season again,” Ryan murmured, looking around outside at the damage from the storm. 

Shane bumped against his side. “Come on, let’s get to the hotel and shower. I’m miserable.”

\-----

Devon was, in fact, very relieved to see them when they got back to the hotel. “You’re both fine?” She asked for the millionth time.

“Promise, Mom,” Ryan said, joking. 

“Shut up,” she said, smiling at him. “We aren’t heading back to LA until later this afternoon, so you guys can get some rest. I can’t believe you got trapped in the shelter for so long. At least you didn’t kill each other.”

“It only crossed my mind for a minute,” Shane said with an overly sweet smile. 

“Whatever. Come on, let’s go lie down on an actual mattress.” He led Shane up to their room and practically collapsed on the bed as soon as they got in. “This is _so_ much better than that concrete floor.”

“I’d hope so, otherwise this place is definitely overcharging.” Shane put his and Ryan’s bags in the floor and started for the bathroom before stopping and looking over at Ryan. “We should, uh, talk, right?”

“What is there to say?” Ryan rolled over on the bed to look up at Shane. “We kissed. We both liked it. We both wanted it. And when we get back home, I hope we’re gonna go out.”

Shane was always impressed by Ryan’s ability to speak his mind so easily. He nodded. “Yeah. I guess that pretty much settles it.”

“Yup. Are you showering first?”

Shane looked towards the bathroom and bit his lip, unsure of where the line was.

“Or we can conserve water?” Ryan asked, seeming to sense Shane’s thoughts.

The taller man smiled. “If you insist.”

Ryan laughed and stood up, walking up to Shane. “Wow, what a hard sell,” he joked, standing on his toes to kiss Shane’s lips. “No extenuating circumstances though, right?”

“Right. Except maybe doing it in the shower for the first time might not be a great idea.” 

He seemed to weigh the options. “Hey, since when have we ever done the smart thing?” He grabbed Shane’s ass, making the taller man squirm in his grip. “Come on, big guy.” He walked into the bathroom, leaving Shane leaning against the wall.

Shane shook his head, watching Ryan walk towards the bathroom. “Right behind you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this!! Kudos and comments make me very happy! If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out my other works!


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